American Splendor

American Splendor tells the story of Harvey Pekar, a hospital file clerk in Cleveland whose routine life revolves around jazz records, flea markets and conversations with his co-workers. At a rummage sale he meets Robert Crumb, then an unknown greeting-card artist. Years later, after Crumb finds fame through his underground comics, Pekar approaches him with an idea: a comic book drawn from his own ordinary working life. The resulting series, American Splendor, first published in 1976, brings Pekar a measure of cult recognition, and with it Joyce Brabner, a comics writer who becomes his wife. The film blends fiction and reality, mixing staged scenes with appearances by the real people behind the characters, and is based on Pekar's own comics.

Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Pekar, marking their first fiction feature after earlier documentary work. Paul Giamatti plays Pekar, with Hope Davis as Brabner, Judah Friedlander as Toby Radloff and James Urbaniak as Crumb. Made for about 2 million dollars, it returned roughly 6 million worldwide. On IMDb it holds 7.1/10 from 562 votes, while a critics' rating of 8.3/10 from 187 reviews sits noticeably higher than that audience figure.